I score senator's votes, got a question re: Alito for DU

[Zodiak]

Someof you may be aware that I score Senator's votes and post the result on threads on DU where contention is raised about the committment of our Democrats to their base. Unlike the ADA, I do not score procedural votes or amendment votes, typically. But then there is this Alito issue.

CAFTA was an important issue, and it had two votes for passage on the floor. I scored them both because of the gravity of that vote. As a result, CAFTA is weighted twice in my scoring system (the votes are slightly different for the two votes).

The Ohio voting issue was another exception. I gave Boxer ten points for speaking as well as voting with her conscience. The speakers who did not vote their conscience got 5 points.

What should I do with Alito?

Normally, a Senator gets 10 points for voting with their progressive base, 5 points for abstaining from the vote, and 0 pts for backing the Republicans or BushCo.

Should I wait for the actual vote for confirmation and score that (which would be consistent with my method, but wil miss cynical DINO ass-covering), or should I do something fancier like score Senators five points for voting yes on cloture but no on Alito?

Please let me know how you feel. Unlike ADA, I can be influenced as to my methodology.

Here is my kos diary where I lay out my method as well as the scores.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/18/19162/775

Here are the scores as of December.

DEMOCRATIC SENATOR LIBERAL INDEX
-------------------------------------------
Harkin (Iowa) 89.2
Boxer (California) 85.7
Lautenberg (New Jersey) 85.7
Akaka (Hawaii) 78.6
Durbin (Illinois) 78.6
Kennedy (Massacheusetts) 78.6
Kerry (Massacheusetts) - DLC 78.6
Corzine (New Jersey) 71.4
Dayton (Minnesota) 71.4
Feingold (Wisconsin) 71.4
Levin (Michigan) 71.4
Mikulski (Maryland) 71.4
Reed (Rhode Island) 71.4
Sarbanes (Maryland) 71.4
Obama (Illinois) 67.9
Dodd (Connecticut) - DLC 64.3
Leahy (Vermont) 64.3
Shumer (New York) 64.3
Wyden (Oregon) 64.3
Bayh (Indiana) - DLC 64.3
Biden (Deleware) 64.3
Clinton (New York) - DLC 60.7
Dorgan (North Dakota) - DLC 57.1
Stabenow (Michigan) - DLC 57.1
Inouye (Hawaii) 57.1
Reid (Nevada) 57.1
Byrd (West Virginia) 50
Murray (Washington) 50
Rockefeller (West Virgnia) 50
Bingaman (New Mexico) 42.9
Cantwell (Washington) - DLC 42.9
Johnson (South Dakota) - DLC 42.9
Kohl (Wisconsin) - DLC 42.9
Baucus (Montana) - DLC 39.3
Conrad (North Dakota) - DLC 39.3
Feinstein (California) 39.3
Leiberman (Connecticut) - DLC 35.7
Carper (Deleware) - DLC 28.6
Lincoln (Arkansas) - DLC 21.4
Nelson (Florida) - DLC 21.4
Salazar (Colorado) - DLC 21.4
Pryor (Arkansas) - DLC 17.9
Landrieu (Louisianna) - DLC 14.3
Nelson (Nebraska) - DLC 0.0

I really set out to do this to ONLY score bill passage and confirmation, but these conscience votes are very tempting to include.

[Salviati]

1. I say do something fancy

Voting no on confirmation but yes on cloture is nothing but political theater. They can count as well as we can, and knew what their vote meant.

[0rganism]

2. They should LOSE 5 points for voting aye on cloture + no on confirmation

The only real vote on confirmation was the cloture vote.

There are but two possibilities for said combination of actions:
a) Cynical ass-covering, as you noted
b) sheer procedural idiocy -- the senator is too stupid to merit support

That's my take, anyway.

[The Larch]

13. b) sheer procedural idiocy -- the senator is too stupid to merit support

Unfortunately, sheer procedural idiocy seems to be the senate's stock in trade.

[Armstead]

3. Zero to all who voted to end the debate

Doesn;t matter what they vote tomorrow. They chickened out by avoiding a filibuster battle.

[Zodiak]

8. So far I like your argument the best.

This was too important to give someone five points for a half-ass stance.

[EFerrari]

10. I agree. Tomorrow is ceremony. The fight was today. n/t

[johnaries]

4. Personally, yes on cloture and no on confirmation proves pandering.

If they voted yes on both, then I could say they were voting their conscience (such as it may be). But if they vote yes on cloture - knowing that Alito will be confirmed - and then vote no on confirmation, then they are just pandering. "I voted no on confirmation". Maybe, but you didn't do anything to actually try and STOP it, so your "no" vote means nothing.

So, if it were me, I'd score them even lower. But, that might be hard to justify to a lot of people. I wouldn't give them any brownie points for it, though. The "he deserves an up or down vote" rhetoric is just pure BS.

Just my 2 cents.

[BillZBubb]

5. Give points for consistency, not trickery.

Votes of No on cloture and No on Alito should be rewarded. +20
Votes of Yes on cloture and No on Alito should be punished for cynicism. They should score lower than those who voted for Alito. -10
All others 0.

[Coexist]

6. the No vote on Alito is really just an empty gesture withouth

the No vote on cloture.

Maybe score the cloture vote a 10 and the actual vote only 5.

[Czolgosz]

9. The no vote is also important, with or without the cloture vote. America

needs to see the confirmation as a party line vote so when Alito violates the Bill of Rights, they can know that was fought against it.

[lakeguy]

11. yes, but a yes to cloture and a no the next day when it doesn't count

is worse to me than being honest and voting yes twice.

[Czolgosz]

7. I'd score the cloture vote and the confirmation vote separately.

Based on your scores, I'm wondering how did we lose Akaka?

[Zodiak]

12. I honestly do not know

He voted for Negroponte, but not for the three radical judges. He voted for the Cheney Energy Bill, and he did not stand up for the rights of Ohio voters during "Boxer's rebellion". Other than that, his record is clean.

Someone posted on DU the idea that Akaka has lost his mind and is incapable of making sane decisions, anymore (based on a personal experience recently). Since it is anecdotal, I cannot use that as an explanation, but I did mentally note it.

The rest were predicatble.....and there is that nasty DLC bloc at the bottom of th list. They are like vipers, waiting to strike the party down whenever is gets any headway. I cannot tell you how sad it makes me that Nelson of Nebraska scored a 0. A frickin' ZERO!!!! And people defend him on this board, for some reason.

[Zodiak]

14. What I find interesting about the votes

Is that the great majority of the aye votes were DLC and all of the Senators on the bottom 12 voted aye except Feinstein.

We apparently have a DLC problem and too large of a proportion of Democratic enators who do not know th first thing it takes to be a Democrat.

Yes, I have ALWAYS advocated outing and delegitimizing these corporate Democrats during the primaries and replacing them with solid, populist Democrats who represent the People. Getting rid of them is essential is unifying the Democratic party's message, which increases the party's legitimacy and strength in the eyes of the people. They want choices.